MARTINEZ — Susan Polk told jurors Monday that her murder defense is a tale as thrilling and strange as a Stephen King novel.

“Do you believe that spies only exist in novels and newspaper stories?” Polk asked the jury as she opened her defense. “Do you know brainwashing and mindcontrol techniques can be learned by anyone with a library card?”

The 48-year-old former Orinda housewife told jurors she is not crazy and that they need to keep an open mind as she presents her side of the story.

That story, Polk said, will include information about her psychic abilities, her husband’s secret life as a spy and his refusal to tell the U.S. government about her warnings of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. Polk said she knew of the attacks beforehand and tried to prevent the tragedy from occurring by telling her husband, who refused to alert authorities.

Prosecutors say Polk murdered her 70-year-old psychologist husband, Felix Polk, in October 2002 after losing money and child custody in a nasty divorce.

Polk, who is representing herself, claims she stabbed her husband in self-defense of a violent attack after enduring years of mental and physical abuse.

Assistant District Attorney Paul Sequeira on Monday morning rested his case, which included the testimony of two of Polk’s three sons. Gabriel and Adam Polk both testified they believe their mother is delusional and murdered their father in cold blood. Adam Polk described his mother as “Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs” during his testimony Thursday, and he did little to hide his disdain for her.

Susan Polk’s third son, Eli Polk, who is currently in Contra Costa County jail on charges of evading arrest, testified briefly Monday and will continue this morning. Polk described Eli Polk as the only one who is not “on the Susan Polk-is-crazy bandwagon” and who has the courage to tell the truth.

As the first witness, Susan Polk called her mother, Helen Bolling, 72, who testified her own father tried to sexually abuse her when she was 14.

At age 14, Susan Polk, then Susan Bolling, met Felix Polk when she began seeing him for therapy sessions. Susan Polk said she and Felix Polk began an illicit relationship when she was still in his care, and he used hypnosis and drugs to keep her under his control.

Helen Bolling said her daughter started boasting of having a boyfriend. When pressed, Susan Polk finally said she was seeing Felix Polk.

Bolling said she called a meeting to confront Felix Polk.

“I said, ‘You’ve had sexual activity with Susan, and you’re not exactly what I had in mind for a son-in-law,'” she said.

Bolling said Felix Polk assured her he would do what was right. But no further actions were taken. Authorities were not called, and Susan Polk was apparently allowed to continue as his patient.

“(Felix) had an ability to take you in and make you believe him,” Bolling said.

After Susan Polk graduated from college, she married Felix Polk and had three children. The marriage lasted more than 20 years, and Susan Polk was estranged from her mother until her arrest in Felix Polk’s slaying. Bolling said she blames “the head doctor,” Felix Polk, for convincing Susan Polk she had been sexually abused by her father and mother as a child. Susan Polk now claims she does not believe she was molested.

“I certainly made a terrible mistake with Felix Polk, and I believe God will make me pay,” Bolling said.

Gabriel and Adam Polk testified they noticed a major change in their mother after she had a mental collapse during a family vacation at Disneyland in the late 1990s. That is when their mother claimed she had remembered being abused as a child, they said.

That also was when their mother began alleging their father was using hypnosis to control the family, the two sons testified. She also alleged he worked secretly for the Israeli spy agency, the Mossad.

Susan Polk said she still believes her husband was a spy, and she told the jury they will be amazed at what they hear during an expected three weeks of testimony.

Polk said her husband was waging a campaign to discredit her because he was trying to protect himself.

“My husband was trying to (label) me as crazy and delusional to hide what he’d done to me as a 14-year-old,” Susan Polk told the jury.

Polk said Felix Polk studied extra-sensory perception and mind-control techniques, which he used to control her and their three boys.

Polk claimed she is psychic, and that for years she helped the U.S. government by reporting terrorist attacks both at home and abroad, including the Sept. 11 attacks. She said she understands it sounds hard to believe, “but the truth is we’re surrounded by mystery every day of our lives.”

Some jurors furrowed their brows. Others appeared amused, while others looked at each other with raised eyebrows at moments during Polk’s presentation.

Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Laurel Brady did not stop Polk’s presentation but rolled her eyes a few times during some of Polk’s statements about how the justice system is conspiring to “frame” her.

In finishing her opening statement, Polk compared her situation to the lynchings of African Americans in the South or the internment camps during World War II where Japanese-Americans were placed.

“What are those old villains? Bias and prejudice,” Polk said, explaining she has been treated unfairly because she is a woman who is defending herself.

“I don’t believe in little green men, even though half of Americans believe in extraterrestrials. But I do believe in fairies,” Polk said.

“Now I’ll call my first witness,” she said, before the judge decided to let the jury take a break.

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